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7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2016 Conservatives seek an ally in Trump in Western land disputes By JOHN FLESHER and BRADY McCOMBS Associated Press E.J. Harris/EO Media Group Robin Harris of Mission found this cat, Cleo, in her hay barn in Pendleton last weekend and called the number on her tags to find the owners. It turns out the 7-month old kitten was wandering for the last two weeks after its family lost the cat during a wreck in Interstate 84 near Harris’ house. A long way back home Kitten survives wreck and two weeks alone By KATHY ANEY EO Media Group PENDLETON — A cat named Cleo will reunite with her family after a car wreck and days of wandering unfa- miliar country. The saga started Nov. 28 when a tire blew on Amanda Egan’s van. Egan was in the process of moving from Utah to Washington and drove on Interstate 84 about a mile east of the Wildhorse Resort & Casino. Her husband Shane was ahead of her in a Ford Tempo. He had pulled off at exit 216 to gas up and was waiting for her. Amanda had the couple’s three young daughters and the family’s pets — Cleo, a seven-month- old kitten, and a black Chi- huahua-pug mix named Irene. “The van started to shake. The tire on the driver’s side blew apart,” Egan said. “I tried to move to the side, but we swerved and rolled over and landed on the top.” Egan believes she may have passed out for a short time. When she swam back to consciousness, she heard Eli- nor, 5, Molly, 3, and Adeline, 1, screaming in fright. Amazingly, all were fine, except for scratches and bruises. A police officer at the scene asked if anyone else was in the car and Amanda instantly remembered the animals. Both had vanished. Soon came the discovery that the dog had run into traffic and been killed. No one could find Cleo. Egan felt anguished as she assessed the kitten’s chances of survival. The family stayed in Pendleton three days to regroup. After renting a trailer and searching unsuccessfully again for the cat, they finally set off with heavy hearts for their new home in Belling- ham, Washington. That was that. The girls cried for several nights, but life went on. “Oh, my gosh,” she said to Harris. “You found her?” The girls, she said, had been missing their ani- mals. Molly had slept each night since the accident with two stuffed animals she had gotten from the EMTs the day of the wreck — she’d named them both Cleo. After the call, Egan quickly shared the good news with her daughters. “They were so excited when I told then Cleo had shown up,” Egan said. “Their mouths were wide open.” Harris, who serves as a board member for the Pendleton Animal Wel- fare Shelter (PAWS), is working out a way to get Cleo back to her family. Unless she can find some- one who is heading to the Seattle area soon, on Sat- urday, PAWS board mem- ber Cindy Spiess will likely add Cleo to a group of animals she is transport- ing to Portland and meet the Egans somewhere for a transfer. Harris will have a hard time saying goodbye. Cleo won her heart and was quickly upgraded from the barn. “She’s living in the house now,” Harris said. Harris said she sees the kitten’s survival as a mar- vel considering the cold and the coyotes. “I don’t know how she survived for two weeks with the temperatures we’ve had,” Harris said, “and I saw two coyotes just recently.” Harris gave kudos to the Egans for placing a tag on Cleo with contact infor- mation. Even better, she said, would be a micro- chip that contains informa- tion that can be accessed at most veterinarians and ani- mal shelters. Cleo will head home soon as can be arranged. For those heading to the Seattle area and willing to transport the kitten, Harris urged them to email PAWS at paw- spendleton@gmail.com. SALT LAKE CITY — Conservatives who have long complained about the govern- ment’s control of vast West- ern lands hope they will have a new ally in Donald Trump, who has sent mixed signals about how he might manage land and whether he would relinquish federal authority over millions of acres. The president-elect has pledged to honor Theodore Roosevelt’s tradition of con- servation in the West, with its expansive deserts, snow- capped mountain ranges and red rock canyons. But he has also said he will “unleash” energy production there and has railed against “faceless, name- less bureaucrats” in land-man- agement agencies. Dozens of demands for land handovers have surfaced in Western state legislatures in recent years, and more are sure to be offered in Congress during the Trump administration. “Those who are champion- ing these issues certainly see this as a rare opportunity,” said Karla Jones, director of a task force for the American Leg- islative Exchange Council, a Washington-based organization that develops bills for conserva- tive lawmakers. On Tuesday, Trump offered the post of interior secretary, the nation’s top custodian of public lands, to Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana, who has not said whether he will accept. The retired Navy SEAL insists that he does not favor relin- quishing federal control of the land, as Democrats allege. Western states Twelve Western states con- tain more than half of the nation’s 640 million acres of federal public lands. Those lands comprise more than 60 percent of Alaska, Idaho and Utah. Resentment of government control has simmered across the West for decades, occasion- ally boiling over into show- downs such as the armed take- over of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters in Oregon last winter. Only a few extremists resort to such tactics. Yet the frus- tration is evident in countless protests, resolutions and bills demanding a greater say for local residents or seeking the sale of millions of acres to pri- vate buyers. Many conservatives accuse federal managers of putting more value on endangered wildlife than on people and jobs. Trump’s election raises hopes for more oil and gas drill- ing, mining, grazing and timber harvesting. How far the Trump admin- istration will go is unclear. But those who have long dreamed of overthrowing a system they consider tantamount to colo- nialism say the time is now. “The founding fathers, when they drafted the Constitu- tion, never intended for the fed- eral government to own land like this,” said Kirk Chandler, AP Photo/Don Ryan A large fir tree heads to the forest floor after it is cut by an unidentified logger in the Umpqua National Forest near Oakridge. For conservatives who have long believed fed- eral managers of America’s vast public lands put more value on endangered owls than people and jobs, Donald Trump’s election raises hopes for significant increases in oil and gas drilling, mining, grazing, timber harvesting and perhaps even a shift of control to state or local governments. AP Photo/Keith Ridler Demonstrators gather near a national wildlife refuge to pro- test against a group occupying the land near in Burns in January. For conservatives who have long believed federal managers of America’s vast public lands put more value on endangered owls than people and jobs, Donald Trump’s election raises hopes for significant increases in oil and gas drilling, mining, grazing, timber harvesting and per- haps even a shift of control to state or local governments. a rancher and county commis- sioner from Weiser, Idaho. “It’s supposed to be the people’s land.” Gearing up Environmentalists and their supporters in Congress are gearing up for a fight, say- ing strong federal regulation is needed to protect water and wildlife habitat. “Any admin that tries to reverse 100-year history of #PublicLands that belong to every American is going to have to do it over my dead body,” Sen. Martin Heinrich tweeted after Trump’s election. The Democrat from New Mexico later told The Associ- ated Press that cash-strapped states would probably sell at least some lands to help cover fire suppression and other man- agement costs. “No trespass- ing” signs would pop up in places where public access has been taken for granted, he said, raising the ire of outdoor sports enthusiasts. “I think you will see a real populist uprising when you start taking away access to peo- ple’s local fishing hole,” Hein- rich said. Local control control seethed as the Obama administration created or expanded more than two dozen national monuments that pro- tected hundreds of millions of acres, imposed a moratorium on new coal production and canceled dozens of oil and gas leases. Despite their shared pref- erence for local control, activ- ists do not have a single plan for accomplishing it. Much will depend on Trump, who told Field & Stream maga- zine in January that he opposed transferring federal lands to the states. “I don’t like the idea because I want to keep the lands great, and you don’t know what the state is going to do,” Trump said. “I mean, are they going to sell if they get into a little bit of trouble?” Yet he endorsed state con- trol in a guest column for a Nevada newspaper, a posi- tion the Republican plat- form strongly backs. A transi- tion team spokesman did not return email messages seeking comment. Zinke, Trump’s choice for interior secretary, has walked a tightrope in Montana, where opinions about federal domin- ion are more divided than in some Western states. During his re-election cam- paign, Democrats accused him of signing a pledge in 2012 declaring Montana’s lands as sovereign and not subject to federal control. He said he did not remember doing so and resigned as a GOP convention delegate over the platform’s stance. Yet he has criticized federal land management and voted for demonstration proj- ects allowing states to manage portions of national forests. Republican Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee plans to re-introduce a measure from last year that would autho- rize states to administer energy leasing and permitting on fed- eral lands. The previous version of the bill was never called for a vote. Transfer of acres Another bill that could be offered again would allow the transfer of 2 million acres of national forests to the states. Rep. Mark Amodei, a Nevada Republican, has sought to reduce the portion of land under federal control in his state from more than 80 percent to about 75 percent. Skeptics consider federal land transfer a fringe issue, and industry groups tend to avoid it. The National Mining Asso- ciation has no formal position, focusing instead on specific battles such as a government proposal to ban mineral devel- opment on 10 million acres to protect the imperiled sage grouse. W A NTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A Supporters of state or local Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500 Big surprise Then, two weeks after the accident, the family got a sur- prise phone call from Robin Harris, who lives about a mile north of the accident site. “I have this gray cat,” Har- ris said. “Her name is Cleo.” Harris explained she had seen a blur of motion in her hay barn and spotted the kit- ten scampering up into the rafters. At first, she thought the cat was wild or had been dumped, then Harris noticed the cat wore a polka-dotted collar with bright pink tags. She climbed up a stack of hay to get a closer look at the tags and found the name Cleo and a phone number. The kitten snuggled into Harris’ arms. Egan greeted the news with both exhilaration and incredulity. HOLIDAY GOLF SALE! 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